I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet

Well it's not actually as dramatic as that. If you've been reading Colleen's blog, you will know that I've finally got another Japanese experience to cross off of my checklist. Earthquake: Done! It actually happened in another part of Japan, and it just so happened that I was awake at 5am, reading, when it hit the apartment. When I say hit what I mean is gently rocked the bedroom back and forth like a mother rocking her child to sleep. I was so excited I immediately jumped out of bed and tried phoning people to tell them about it. I mean it wasn't huge but it was a first and once you feel one it always feels like the ground is shaking if you stand still long enough. Or at least that's what the voices tell me. I wanted to know if anyone else felt it so the next day when I mentioned it at work I was greatly disappointed when I found that neither student nor fellow teacher had a clue what I was talking about. I guess they all must have been sleeping at 5am. Freaks. I was finally, however, validated that it wasn't my imagination when one student who is an assistant research director for a TV station confirmed my story. Yes indeed I had lived through the wussiest of all earthquakes.

On a completely unrelated note Colleen and I took another trip. This time we went to Koyasan (Mt. Koya) to see the home of Shingon Buddhism and spend a night in a temple. It seems it has fallen upon me these days to do the relating of all trips we take so instead of boring you with another prosaic story of a place full of temples and stuff I shall do it in verse so you may mock my pentameter.

Twas a celebration like almost no other
To celebrate 5 years of being stuck with each other
(first rhyme and I used the same word, nice start)
We headed off for holy peak
Two hour train ride and I had to take a leak
We then switched to a cable car and were on our way
Near a New York Jewish mother with far too much to say
(Oh my gawd, I can't believe this is happening to me you know I'm afraid of heights)
So one bus later we were at our hotel
Well it was actually a temple and the monks were the bell(boys)
(my dignity is starting to falter)
The room was quite nice with grass mats on the floor
We checked in then went out on the town to explore
With map in hand we had rain clouds to face us
Two shortcuts gone wrong and we had some dogs chase us
We finally figured out where the heck we were going
Seeing temples and monuments with no signs of slowing
The rain was coming down and we were sharing one umbrella
An old monk took pity and he gave me his umbrella
(Ok seriously what rhymes with umbrella that I could possibly use in this story, Goodfella? Mortadella? W.P. Kinsella? Anyhow, allow me to get back to the torture)
Heading back to our temple we were hungry as librarians(?)
for food made by monks who were all vegetarian
(seriously tons of food brought to our room and all of it veg.)
After dinner we tired and were barely awake
so I went to the baths where a monk saw me nake(d)
6am the next morning Colleen rose and she prayed
with the monks, not for me, no sir, in bed I stayed
(my ankle was killing me and I had no interest in kneeling on the floor for 40 minutes)
Another meal later we checked out without tarry
To walk down a path through a huge cemetery
Cremated remains under stones they were housed
They went on forever, over two hundred thous(and)
(shoot me now)
Ancient and moss covered, with trees as their neighbors
the path finally ended two kilometres later
We got to a point where photos were banned
and saw a huge building where inside it spanned
with thousand of lanterns kept alight every day
by the monks who lived there where they chanted and prayed
(hey I'm on a roll)
After that there were only two things left to see
So we left that old graveyard with its Buddhas and trees
We went to the gate with it's giant stone guards
Then a little stone statue where we prayed really hard
(for my ankle to get better and my own army of ninjas)
Then a bus, a cablecar and a train to go home
And a stop for some Mexican food....'cause I was really hungry
(AAAAUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHH! One lousy rhyme away from true glory. Now I know how Eminem feels.)

Anyway that was our trip, only made slightly more difficult by the fact that my ankle is still healing and I was using a cane to get around. If you want to see all the pics from Koyasan click here. I also put up a picture or two of our Japanese family. Colleen and I were adopted by our friends Sanae and Chiaki and Chiaki's family who have made it their goal to make sure Colleen and I have tried every food Japan has to offer before we go home to Canada. We love them!

Cheers all, and if you are still talking to me after reading what I so loosely called a poem I will write again soon. Love and Laugh, Carl.